February 9 - Character

Rasputin was quite a character! Having convinced the Russian queen that he was the only person who could treat her son for haemophilia, he also became her lover. In the basement of the Yusupov Palace in St Petersburg, home of one of Russia's most wealthy and favoured families, a dastardly plot was carried out to murder the 'mad monk'. He was invited there for a meal which had been poisoned, but apparently after waiting a respectable amount of time for the poison to work, it had no effect, so they shot him and he ran away - eventually they tracked him through the snow, attacked him again, rolled him into a rug and drowned him in the Neva river (just to be certain he was finished!). The palace is spectacular in its own right, and in the basement rooms there are wax figures showing the scene where the conspirators entertained Rasputin with his last meal. It's more fascinating than anything else as you get to walk the corridors under the palace with a Russian guide.